When the mind is free of past impressions and future cravings, happiness is there. If you win over your mind, you win over the world, says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Your mind, the inner self, is like water. That’s why you break coconut in temples. Your body is like a hard shell. Your mind should be white like the kernel, very pure. The stillness inside is water. Nature of water is cooling and flowing. But when this water is burning with jealousy, anger, frustration and all the fires you put inside yourself, it boils. Then the cooling nature of water disappears.
So, what do you do to cool the waterIJ Just remove, one at a time, the sticks that are burning. Throw them out. Just imagine a pot and the burning firewood underneath. How to cool the waterIJ Remove all the firewood and the water will become cooler.
A CAlM PRACTICE
Coolness is the basic nature of water. Another quality of water is to flow down. The human quality of humility and naturalness are like water flowing down. So, when all the negative stresses are removed, water naturally regains all its qualities. You are like water inside. The cool nature is yours. Never think that “I am an angry person” or this sort of person or that. Your nature is calmness, coolness. If it wasn’t your nature, you would not feel at home in it. The nature of mind is to waver, similar to how the nature of water is to flow. Now how do you reduce this wavering nature of the mindIJ It is through practice (abhyaasa) and dispassion (vairagya). What is dispassionIJ Sometimes, when you are disturbed, you say, “I don’t want anything. Enough is enough (suffering)!” This is one kind of dispassion which you experience when you are disturbed. It is called Smashana (cemetery) Vairagya.
The second kind of dispassion is when you say with awareness, “I don’t want anything. I have enough (contentment)! Everything in the world changes; nothing is permanent. I don’t mind if I have or don’t have something.” This is the second type of dispassion, and is called Gyana (knowledge) Vairagya. We need to have Gyana Vairagya and not Smashana Vairagya. The mind always moves towards pleasure. If we have knowledge and dispassion, then all the pleasures will come to us. It is also said that the pleasure that comes out of abhyaasa (practice) is the highest. Everyone has to experience at least one of the two types of dispassion. So it is better to say, “I have had enough”, out of awareness and contentment. That is the higher kind of dispassion.
I WANT MORE
You always feel, “I want some greater joy — I may have it if I have a better companion, if I have a lot of money, if I have a lot of freedom.” Have you experienced thisIJ For those people on the spiritual path who do not have much money in the beginning for some reason, it is good. That’s why Jesus said, “Blessed are those that are poor and meek.” Money gives you a hallucination that you have better freedom. And when this idea takes over your mind, you feel bound. And when you are bound, you feel stiff. Similarly, when you feel stiffness, you are bound and there is no freedom. Your mind tells you that with more money one could have more freedom, could travel anywhere, or do whatever one wants; these hallucinating ideas come into the mind.
But the moment you become soft inside, the stiffness drops, the tied down feeling in you goes and everything else follows; the wealth and comfort follow. This is happening in the spiritual path. These people are free to move, they are not bound and softness is there. When you feel good, soft and non-resisting, then prosperity also follows. When the mind is free from lust, greed, possessiveness and arrogance, and when the mind is in the pure form with which we were all born with, then nature listens to you.
KNOW YOUR MIND
Your worries, feelings and thoughts arise in your own mind. You are totally responsible for all your feelings — how you feel, what you think, what you do. So you need to and should try to know your mind well. It brings a lot of clarity and relief to your life and mission. It helps you to identify your negativities and that, in turn, dawns positive energy and thinking in your life.
Negative thoughts come and go. If you chase them away, they come to you multiplied. Just give them a tight hug and you will suddenly find they have disappeared. They are scared of your hug, but they are fond of you chasing them. So, they come back again for you to chase them again. If too many negative thoughts occur, the reason is lack of circulation in you. Do a lot of exercises. If you keep yourself busy, the negative thoughts will lessen. The company you are in can also affect the mind. Company of people who are negative can also affect the mind. One last thing that affects the mind is time. Certain times, certain planetary positions and certain cosmic energies can all affect your mind. But all this will pass.
A HAPPY MEMORY
Pleasant events create cravings and competition in the mind, and do not allow fresh experiences, whereas unpleasant events give a biased perception and create paranoia. So, memory is both a blessing and a hindrance, depending on whether you remember your nature or you are stuck with events in time and space. The forgetfulness of the nature of man is the root cause of all problems and sufferings in life. The very remembrance of one’s nature, which is godliness, brings freedom in life. Here, memory is your best friend. The purpose of knowledge is to remind you of your true nature. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna tells Krishna, “I got back my memory. Now I have realised and will do as you say.”
Happiness depends only on your mind. When the mind is free of past impressions and future cravings, happiness is there. When your mind is not complaining and is responsible, courageous, confident and empty, you are inexplicably beautiful. Inside you are both big and small. The being is only one. So when the mind recognises this oneness, the mind disappears. If you can win over your mind, you can win over the whole world.
Courtesy: www.artofliving.org